Ancient Rockets: Treasures and Trainwrecks of the Silent Screen

Kage Baker, Kathleen Bartholomew, ed.

With her acerbic wit and endless delight, travel from Metropolis to Oz with Kage Baker (the Company series), film critic extraordinaire. Ancient Rockets presents mad scientists, terrifying fiends, flimsy plots, and glorious landscapes that have inspired generations of fans and filmmakers alike.

Ancient Rockets: Treasures and Trainwrecks of the Silent Screen

by Kage Baker, Kathleen Bartholomew, ed.

From Metropolis to the pre-Technicolor Oz, take a fantastical journey through the wildest frontiers of the silent films of the silver screen.

Ancient Rockets brings you the earliest (and cheesiest) special effects, the best and worst directors, the tour de forces and the utter trainwrecks. Forty-nine cinematic odysseys will take you on A Trip to the Moon and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, swinging upon jungle vines with Tarzan and into the terrifying laboratory of Dr. Frankenstein, from The Adventures of Prince Achmed all the way to Modern Times.

These are the pinnacles and the pitfalls of science fiction’s silent movies as affectionately viewed by Kage Baker (the Company series) with acerbic wit and historical acumen. Ancient Rockets presents the mad scientists, terrifying fiends, flimsy plots, and glorious landscapes that have inspired generations of fans and filmmakers alike.

“When beloved SF author Kage Baker was battling the illness that ultimately took her life, she distracted herself by watching old science-fiction silent movies, and reviewing them for Tor.com. The 49 reviews include some films you’ve probably seen, and some you’ve undoubtedly never heard of. Now Tachyon [Publications] has collected all of them in a beautiful little book, which is so full of snark and wit that you’ll feel as if Baker was sitting with you giving her commentary on these films.”
—io9.com

Kage Baker is the author of the Company novels, her series of immortal, time-traveling cyborgs, including In the Garden of Iden, Mendoza in Hollywood, and The Sons of Heaven. Baker received the Nebula and Theodore Sturgeon awards. She was passionately involved in the theater as an actor, director, playwright, and teacher of Elizabethan English as a second language, which she often used for research in her novels.

Kathleen Bartholomew is Kage Baker’s sister and editor. She has been working with Baker’s unfinished projects since Baker’s untimely death from cancer in 2010.

“Ms. Baker is the best thing to happen to modern science fiction since Connie Willis or Dan Simmons. She mixes adventure, history, and societal concerns in just the right amount, creating an action-packed but thoughtful read.”
—Dallas News

“Historical detail and fast-paced action with a good dose of ironic wit and a dollop of bittersweet romance.”
—Library Journal

“In fact—although this is something one should always say with some caution—it wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out to be a classic and went on down the ages along with Alice and Oz and the very few others that have become immortal.”
—Diana Wynne Jones, author of Howl’s Moving Castle

“It’s exciting to come upon a book that serves not only as a great story to share with your kids, but one that has some undeniably unusual—and geeky—features.”
—Wired

“Charming…. Baker’s first book for younger readers is a delight.”
—Denver Post

“Skillfully written….”
—Publishers Weekly

“Kage Baker is already well-known among adult readers for her science-fiction series The Company, but her new children’s book The Hotel Under the Sand is bound to win her plenty of new readers among the younger set.”
—Omnivoracious.com

“Refreshingly original…. Although Baker is an established author of science fiction and fantasy for adults, this novel is written so naturally that it is difficult to believe it is her debut for younger readers.”
—VOYA Library Journal

“There are few books that I immediately want to press into the hands of other readers the instant I turn the last page. My copy of Hotel will be one that I hand to my daughter in a few years. First, however, I’m going to force it on everybody I know.”
—Locus